The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Islam ‘Helped to Shape’ CIA Nominee John Brennan’s World View

by Patrick Goodenough

(CNSNews.com) – As a college student in the 1970s, John Brennan,
President Obama’s nominee for CIA director, traveled in Indonesia where
– he recalled in a speech in New York in 2010 – “despite my long hair,
my earring and my obvious American appearance, I was welcomed
throughout that country, in a way that is a reflection of the
tremendous warmth of Islamic cultures and societies.”

Brennan’s Feb. 13, 2010 address to a meeting at the Islamic Center
at New York University, facilitated by the Islamic Society of North
America (ISNA), provided an insight into his views on Islam, a faith
which he said during the speech had “helped to shape my own world
view.”

Travels around the world over more than three decades had taught him
about “the goodness and beauty of Islam,” said Brennan, whose 25-year
career at the CIA until 2005 included a stint as station chief in
Riyadh.

“Like the president during his childhood years in Jakarta, I came to
see Islam not how it is often misrepresented, but for what it is – how
it is practiced every day, by well over a billion Muslims worldwide, a
faith of peace and tolerance and great diversity.”

In the speech, during which he drew applause after speaking in Arabic
for more than a minute, Brennan used terms evidently designed to
appeal to his audience, such as “Al-Quds” for Jerusalem, “Palestine”
and “as the Qur’an reveals” – in keeping with the Muslim belief that
the Qur’an was “revealed” directly by Allah to Mohammed through the
angel Jibril (Gabriel).

He condemned what he said were negative stereotypes in the U.S. about
Muslims and hostility towards Islam, adding that government actions
and policies had contributed to the problem but saying this would
change under Obama.

“Ignorance is a threat to our national security, prejudice is a
threat to our national security, discrimination is a threat to our
national security. And those who purport to be religious are frequently
the most egregious purveyors of ignorance, prejudice and discrimination
– and it must stop,” he said.

“We must also acknowledge that over the years the actions of our own
government have at times perpetuated those attitudes,” Brennan
continued.

“Violations of the Patriot Act; surveillance that has been excessive;
policies perceived as profiling; over-inclusive no-fly lists
subjecting law-abiding individuals to unnecessary searches and
inconvenience; creating an unhealthy atmosphere around many Muslim
charities that made Muslims hesitant to fulfill their sacred obligation
of zakat [an Islamic tithe or tax] – these are challenges we
face, we face together as Americans, and President Obama and his
administration are pursuing a comprehensive approach to address them,”
he said.

As Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, Brennan – a Jesuit-educated
Catholic – has played a prominent role in the administration’s outreach
to Muslims, American Muslims especially. He has also been a leading
proponent of the effort to stop using terms many Muslims find offensive,
such as “jihadist” as a descriptor for terrorists acting in the name
of Islam.

“They are not jihadists,” he told the NYU audience in 2010, “for
jihad is a holy struggle, an effort to purify, for a legitimate
purpose. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing holy or pure or
legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women and
children.”

Brennan had made similar comments the previous August, telling a
Center for Strategic and International Studies event that “describing
terrorists in this way, using the legitimate term ‘jihad’ – which means
to purify oneself or to wage a holy struggle for a moral goal – risks
giving these murderers the religious legitimacy they desperately seek
but in no way deserve.”

The administration’s National Security Strategy,
released three months after the NYU speech, repeatedly used variations
of the phrase “al-Qaeda and its affiliates” in identifying the enemy.
The term “jihadist” and did not appear in the 52-page document and the
word “Islam” appeared twice – the U.S. was not fighting a war against
Islam, it said, and “neither Islam nor any other religion condones the
slaughter of innocents.”

(By contrast the Bush administration’s 2006 NSS stated that “the
struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological
conflict of the early years of the 21st century,” although it also said
that Islam “has been twisted and made to serve an evil end.”)

When he previewed the NSS document in a speech several days before
the launch, Brennan said, “Our enemy is not terrorism because terrorism
is but a tactic. Nor do we describe our enemy as jihadists or Islamists
because jihad is holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam meaning to
purify oneself or one’s community.”

Newspapers in the Islamic world routinely use the term “jihadist”
(or, in South Asia, “jihadi”) in their news reporting on terrorist acts,
without suggesting that the term has been misappropriated.